Possibility of peninsula progress

Park Geun-hye's win in a high-turnout election in the ROK paves the way for improving regional peace and stability

The 18th presidential election of the Republic of Korea was held on Dec 19 and Park Geun-hye, the conservative ruling New Frontier Party candidate, is set to become the country's first female president after she defeated her archrival Moon Jae-in of the Democratic United Party.

Voter turnout in this year's election was 75.8 percent, much higher than that of the presidential election in 2007, when the turnout was 63.0 percent, and 2002, when it was 70.8 percent. The higher turnout shows that voters hoped to show their views on major issues and believed their votes might make a difference in what was seen as a neck-and-neck competition between the daughter of former strongman president Park Chung-hee and the trusted follower of former president Roh Moo-hyun.